Nonwoven fabrics formed from fibers that are thermally bonded to each other have been produced for many years. Two common thermal bonding techniques include area bonding and point bonding. In area bonding, bonds are produced throughout the entire nonwoven fabric at locations where the fibers of the nonwoven fabric come into contact with one another. This can be achieved in various ways, such as by passing heated air, steam or other gas through an unbonded web of fibers to cause the fibers to melt and fuse to one another at points of contact. Area bonding can also be achieved by passing a web of fibers through a calender composed of two smooth steel rollers heated to cause the fibers to soften and fuse. In point bonding, the web of fibers is passed through a heated calender nip comprised of two nip rolls, wherein at least one of the rolls has a surface with a pattern of protrusions. Typically, one of the heated rolls is a patterned roll and the cooperating roll has a smooth surface. As the web moves through the calender roll, the individual fibers are thermally bonded together at discrete locations or bond sites where the fibers contact the protrusions of the patterned roll and the fibers are unbonded in the locations between these point bond sites.
Point bonding can be used effectively to bond nonwoven fabrics formed from thermoplastic fibers having the same polymer composition and similar melting temperature. However, area bonding is not ordinarily usable for nonwoven fabrics of this type since the fabrics typically require the presence of a binder component that softens and melts at a temperature lower than that of the fibers in order to produce the bonds.
One example of a well known commercially available area bonded nonwoven fabric is sold under the registered trademark Reemay® by Fiberweb Inc. of Old Hickory, Tenn. This spunbond fabric is produced generally in accordance with the teachings of U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,384,944 and 3,989,788 in which filaments of a higher melting polymer composition and a lower melting polymer composition are intermingled with each other and deposited onto a moving belt to form a web. The web of filaments is directed through a hot air bonder, where the filaments of the lower melting composition soften and melt to form bonds throughout the web, resulting in a nonwoven fabric with desirable physical properties. The filaments composed of the higher melting polymer composition do not melt during bonding and provide strength to the fabric. For example, in the Reemay® fabric, the higher melting composition is a polyester homopolymer and the lower melting binder composition is a polyester copolymer.
The requirement of using two separate polymer compositions increases the handling and processing requirements of the manufacturing process and makes it difficult to recycle or reuse scrap or waste material due to the presence to two different polymer compositions. Additionally, the melting temperature of the lower melting composition represents a limitation on the temperature conditions under which the nonwoven fabric can be used.